Public Safety Workshop

Tim Andro started his career in public safety as a firefighter in 1998 and is the owner/ lead SDI/ERDI/PADI/UCI instructor for Northeast Public Safety Divers, a premiere public safety dive training center since 2015. In 2005 Tim started recreational and technical diving, including Advanced Trimix and Closed-Circuit Rebreather, and has logged over 4,000 dives across many disciplines. 

Tim Was the Mahwah Rescue Dive Coordinator from 2015 to 2026 and in 2016 founded the North Jersey Regional Scuba Taskforce which was made up of six teams and operated until 2024 when Mahwah Rescue was the last remaining team. During this time, Tim was also the Dive Coordinator for Bergen County OEM and ran dive operations for the FBI, NJ Attorney General, US Coast Guard, NJ/NY Port Authority, The Royal Mounted Canadian Police, along with many local and state agencies. In 2023 following the launch of DiveCodes, the PSD reporting program he designed and owns,  

Tim became 1 of 5 instructors certified to teach the Underwater Criminal Investigation(UCI) program. In 2025 Tim founded the Underwater Forensics & Educational Foundation (501c3) with the mission to support the professional development of public safety divers through specialized educational opportunities, while conducting expert underwater forensic searches and recoveries.

Kyle Lynch is a lifelong public safety professional from Suffern, New York, with nearly 20 years of experience as a firefighter and EMT. He currently serves as Deputy Chief of Special Operations for Mahwah Emergency Medical Services, Captain of the Rockland County Hazardous Materials Team, a Squadman with the Ramsey Rescue Squad, and a member of the Mahwah Fire Department Dive Team. 

Kyle earned a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice with a concentration in Crime Scene Investigation from Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. He began his medicolegal death investigation career in 2019 as a Forensic Investigator with the Orange County Office of the Medical Examiner in Orange County, NY, and later served as an Investigator with the Dutchess County Medical Examiner’s Office. He now works for a major New York metropolitan-area Medical Examiner’s Office, conducting citywide forensic death investigations across all five boroughs. 

Kyle is a nationally board-certified Fellow of the American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigators. In his current role, he responds to mass fatality incidents and highly complex death investigations requiring coordinated, multi-agency and unified command approaches. His work includes fatalities involving chemical, biological, and radiological hazardous materials contamination, WMD fatalities, post-blast scenes, and cases requiring specialized remains recovery operations. 

Throughout his career, Kyle has developed specialized expertise in fire fatalities, line-of-duty death investigations, post-blast fatality reconstruction, water-related death investigations, and chemical suicide investigations. His advanced training and certifications include Pro-Board Fire Cause and Origin Investigator, Hazardous Materials Specialist, completion of ATF and FBI Post-Blast Investigation courses, public safety diving, underwater criminal investigation, and the Louisiana State University–National Center for Biomedical Research and Training’s Advanced Crime Scene Investigation for HazMat Crime Scenes course. 

Lieutenant David Thistle has been a police officer for 22 years and a diver for 18 years.  He became a member of the Stoneham Fire and Police Dive team in 2017.  He has testified in a wide variety of criminal cases ranging from traffic citations to homicides.   He is a certified instructor for the Massachusetts Municipal Police Criminal Training Council (MPTC) in Domestic Violence / Sexual Assault, Report Writing, Courtroom Testimony, and Water Safety.  

Tony Pietrantonio is the Director of the Joint Recovery Team for Task Force Dagger Special Operations Foundation and Captain of the Harnett County Underwater SAR Team. He is also a partner and owner of the Public Safety Instructor Group. He began his diving career in 1994 shortly before joining the US Army in 1995. He spent the next 23 years serving in multiple roles within US Army Special Operations. In 2009, he joined the Harnett County Fire Service and Dive Team when a friend asked him to assist with a search and recovery of a lost girl. Tony holds certifications as a Firefighter, Hazardous Materials Responder, Technical Rope Rescuer, Technical Water Rescuer, Wilderness/Mountain Rescuer, EMT/DMT, Public Safety Diver/Supervisor, and Commercial Diver/Supervisor. 

Richard M. Simon grew up diving and crewing on New England dive boats. Rick is a Boston Sea Rover, 2005 Frank Scalli Intern, and a TDI dive instructor with recreational and technical ratings. He is the president of Manta Industries, a dive equipment manufacturing company and the vice president of Shoreline Diving Services, Inc., a commercial diving company specializing in inspection, salvage and construction. Rick is an avid diver, especially enjoying cave and wreck diving mostly on the East Coast but anywhere around the world. When he is not diving, he enjoys spending time with his wife Erin and their many farm animals.

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